Dining: SuRa

SuRa refers to the meals of the king of the Korean royal court, when they would eat from at least 20 different dishes, nibbling one at a time.

“Kings don’t like sharing, and they eat everything,” says Sewoon Oh, general manager at SuRa. His restaurant creates an environment where royal dining habits are mimicked. “We have plenty of dishes for everyone,” he says.

Korean food, known for abundant sides, or banchan, comes with variety of meat, vegetable, noodle and rice dishes. Kimchi, a Korean staple and the most popular banchan, is fermented cabbage covered in red pepper paste and elicits a sweet and sour (and definitely spicy) taste. It’s uniquely Korean, and an item that many American tongues find tantalizing. It’s also a dish SuRa prepares every morning.

The restaurant’s Bibmibap, a mixed rice bowl filled with vegetables, tofu, egg and choice of meat, mixes a bit of everything from Korean cuisine. For the carnivores, SuRa’s Korean barbecue entices the palate with a variety of marinated beef, pork and chicken.“It’s not too dry, it’s not too raw, it’s just perfect,” says Oh.

He adheres to the same culinary principles his parents, who opened the restaurant in September 2010, brought from “The Land of Morning Calm.”

“A lot of Korean restaurants try to modify the food to fit American tastes, but we don’t,” says Oh. “We want people to truly taste Korean food.”